


Subject 012: Stickmin, Henry

by orderlymess



Category: Henry Stickmin Series (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, First Post, Imagine that, Oneshot, Other, at least i think this counts as angst??, fan written backstory, hyper fixation goes brrr, maybe idk lol, multiverse/alternate timeline exploration, oops he's traumatized now, scared for life gang, test subject henry, this actually has gadget gabe in it for a hot second, this isn't canon by the way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:26:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26254867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orderlymess/pseuds/orderlymess
Summary: A headcanon-turned-story of mine that I’ve been sitting on for about a day. This oneshot explores how Henry is able to experience all the endings/failures in the Henry Stickmin games. It’s in no way canon, obviously, I’m just some idiot on AO3 with no ties to the devs. This whole fic is based on that list in Stealing the Diamond, where Henry wrote down potential jobs, and I just created this whole personal canon that I decided to share with the fandom. I hope you all enjoy it.  :)*This is my first post on AO3, and I’m just getting used to things.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 194





	Subject 012: Stickmin, Henry

Henry glanced around the cold, sterile room he was occupying. The observation team on the other side of the glass barely paid him any mind as they ran through notes and talked amongst each other. Gabe stood behind them, his arms crossed, eyes locked on the test subject. Henry gulped in response and focused his gaze back on the gift of technology resting on the table in front of him. He had taken a job at TechnoGadgets INC. about a month or two ago. Having only a highschool diploma and so-so grades during his academic years, Henry didn’t have many options. He considered taking up a life of crime, but someone he met in a bar well past midnight changed his mind. 

The mysterious man, who never did tell Henry what his name was, overheard Henry ask the bartender if the bar was hiring. The man proceeded to invite Henry to a booth, where he told the young man that he was a sales representative for a tech company that was just starting out. He bragged to Henry about how successful they already were, and how the government and select crime syndicates were interested in their work. However, the company, TechnoGadgets INC., was in need of people willing to test their inventions. They even offered the prototypes to said testers for them to keep as mementos or memorabilia. But, all it took to get the naïve Henry Stickmin on board was a promise of good pay.

He was luckier than the other test subjects; lucky, as in, testing the various miracle inventions didn’t leave him horribly disfigured, give him brain damage, or worse, take his life. Henry knew he was one of the lucky ones. He was the only one to last as long as he has.

However, everyone’s luck runs out eventually. 

“Testing, testing, can you hear me, Stickmin?” one of the observers spoke through the intercom, the one with the greenish brown eyes. 

“Yeah, I can hear you,” Henry responded, glancing over at them. The three observers looked down at whatever was scrawled on their clipboards before the brunette spoke next.

“What you have there in front of you is a Timeline Hopper, name still pending,” she began. “The premise is the user is able to travel to different timelines, where different choices and decisions have been made. For example, the user could travel to a timeline where their parents never met, or the dinosaurs never died. Please read the instructions to yourself as I read them aloud to you.”

Henry did as he was told. When using the device, he was not to let go of it, since if he does it won’t come with him to the alternate timeline, and he might not be able to get back. He understood. All he had to do was press the yellow button, punch in a number that represented an alternate timeline, and press the green button to confirm. To get back, he was supposed to repeat the process, however the number he was supposed to select was zero. Gabe himself leaned into the microphone connected to the intercom.

“Are you ready, Stickmin?” he asked. 

He took a deep breath.

“Yes, I’m ready.”

“Test one of the Timeline Hopper, name pending, is a go, Subject 012: Stickmin, Henry, is traveling to alternate timeline number one for approximately thirty seconds. You’re all clear, subject,” the first observer droned. 

Henry couldn’t help but notice the way his hands shook as he activated the device. There was nothing to fear. These inventions never hurt him before, so there was definitely nothing to fear. He just had to take the leap.

The Timeline Hopper made a conformational beep when Henry pressed the green button. At first, nothing happened. The testing room was almost completely silent, the only audible noise being Henry’s shallow breaths. He braced himself for something to happen, for the machine to overheat, for his brain to explode. He clenched the weighty metal box tightly in his hands and scrunched his eyes shut.

Nothing. Silence.

Henry lessened his grip and slowly opened his eyes.

“...test one of the Time-”

Whatever else the observer said didn’t reach Henry’s ears as he was violently pulled forwards. It felt like a greater being seized his very soul and pulled it right out of his body. All of the air in his lungs was pushed out as his eyes rolled into the back of his head. Henry felt as if he was falling forwards a million miles an hour as colors flew past him. He blew past brilliant streaks of colors he’s never seen before, unable to appreciate the beauty of it due to the utter terror coursing through his entire being. No sound passed his lips as he traveled, whatever screams he wanted to release caught in the back of his throat. 

Finally, Henry stopped moving so fast as he was dumped out into what looked like a galaxy. As he frantically looked around, he noticed the billions upon trillions of lines, all of them branching off at some point to create what looked like one giant web. Some of the lines stopped, while others fused with each other. It was mesmerizing. Henry couldn’t look away, his jaw hanging open.

His head began to hurt, his body sore. His poor heart began to beat out of control, either from the shock of what he was seeing, or as an effect of wherever he was now. Henry blinked for the first time and instantly felt himself being pulled violently backwards, similar to the first time. He expected to see colors again, but there was only darkness. Then, the colors came and appeared within the darkness. 

The unbridled fear returned to his mortal soul as he fell and flew. All he knew now was panic. Horrified at the universe, Henry tried to scream again. He figured it was working this time since he felt his throat become scratchy and sore, however no sound ever found him. He then tried to struggle and thrash in the void he was being forced through, but it did little for him. He was beyond tears at this point, too afraid to cry. 

Suddenly he heard

_“Stickmin!!”_

voices, specifically the

_“Stickmin, snap out of it!”_

observers who were

_“He’s unresponsive, what should we do?”_

trying to wake him

_“Just keep shaking him, I think I saw him twitch!”_

up from the

_“Hey, get me my water bottle, would you?”_

nightmare Henry was trapped in.

…

…..

.......

Something cold hit Henry’s face. Water, he soon realized. He wearily opened his eyes, which were closed this whole time, to find himself lying on the floor. The chair he was previously sitting at was tipped over onto its side, and all three observers as well as Gabe surrounded him. All of them bar the face of the company were knelt at his side looking completely freaked out. 

“Stickmin! God- a-are you okay!?” the one with glasses screeched. Henry simply nodded as he tried to even out his breaths. 

“You, uh, had us worried there…” the one who had greenish-brown eyes said. “You just shot out of your chair, collapsed on the floor, had some sort of...seizure...and then went limp.”

“What did you see?” the brunette asked inquisitively, clicking her pen. Henry parted his lips, but was unable to summon any words. He instead slowly shook his head no, staring right through her. 

“So it was a failure, then?” Gabe sighed. “Back to development it is, then-”

In a flash, Henry was clutching at the spokesman’s shirt with a death grip, his eyes wide. Though his voice was weak and croaky, his words were firm.

“No.”

“No? Stickmin, this could be-”

“No,” Henry repeated, pulling Gabe closer. “Too dangerous.”

Gabe froze for a moment. The way Henry looked and held onto him sent a chill down his spine. After a few heartbeats of nobody saying a word, Gabe nodded his head.

“Ok-okay. We’ll scrap this one...but only this one. Now-”

“Quit,” Henry muttered, letting go of him. “I quit.” 

Gabe did a double take at that. 

“You- really?” Henry nodded. Gabe exhaled. “Alright...we’ll mail you your last paycheck, I guess...thank you for working with us,” When he offered his hand for the test subject to shake, Henry merely turned around and left without another word.

What Henry had seen and experienced had no doubt traumatized him. He doubted that he’d ever be the same again. There was no going back. Henry’s large grey-blue eyes locked on the ground below him as he walked back to his cheap apartment complex, unaware of the car about to hit him-

…

…..

.......

Something cold hit Henry’s face. Water, he soon realized. He wearily opened his eyes, which were closed this whole time, to find himself lying on the floor. The chair he was previously sitting at was tipped over onto its side, and all three observers as well as Gabe surrounded him. All of them bar the face of the company were knelt at his side looking completely freaked out.

But he’d already done this before.

“Stickmin! God- a-are you okay!?” the one with glasses screeched. Henry simply nodded as he tried to even out his breaths. 

It repeated.

“You, uh, had us worried there…” the one who had greenish-brown eyes said. “You just shot out of your chair, collapsed on the floor, had some sort of...seizure...and then went limp.”

Henry was back in the testing room, and everything was repeating. 

He decided to play along. Eventually, he was outside the building again, feeling completely shell shocked. He let the seconds pass by until he saw the car that was supposed to hit him drive past him with no problem. 

Henry Stickmin had cheated death, and he didn’t know how.

Being careful to not get hit by any cars this time around, Henry made his way back home. He collapsed onto his bed and stared up at the chipped ceiling. What....happened to him? And why? He instantly thought back to that stupid Timeline Hopper. That had to have messed him up somehow. Whatever he saw was not meant for him to see. Was this his punishment? But then, that begs the question: what did he do wrong?

A headache began to insert itself into Henry’s brain, so he stopped thinking about that for now and tried to focus on his future, something he never really gave much thought to. What was he even supposed to do now? Just...live like this? Forever? The thought made him queasy. He didn’t even know how to control these “powers”, if he could even call whatever happened to him that. 

Before, when he got hit by that car, it was obvious that he’d died. Yet he _didn’t_. He was here now. Henry pondered this for a moment. Was he just not meant to die at that moment, or is he immortal now? He sure hoped he wasn’t immortal. That would make his life so much harder.

Henry began to think about the purpose of the device. Travel to alternate timelines...is that what he’s doing now? Those lines he saw when the device worked- were those all timelines? There were so many...although, that makes sense. A new timeline is probably created whenever someone chooses to wear pants instead of shorts, or something dumb like that. No wonder there were so many. Is that what Henry can do now…? Switch to different timelines at will? He sat up in bed, his absent gaze drifting to the wall and its peeling paint. It was so much to take in. How was he supposed to know if any of this was actually true? It’s not like he could find other people like him, or get help. He might be killed. With a shiver, Henry fell onto his side and curled up. 

Henry spent the following days cooped up in his apartment. The days quickly turned into weeks; the only time he actually left the cramped living space was to retrieve that check TechnoGadgets INC. sent him. It was a decent amount of cash, however it didn’t last forever. Eventually, Henry ran out of food and rent money. By this point, Henry hadn’t spoken a word to any other human, not even himself. He was somewhat of a homebody, left with little to no motivation to go on. 

In need of quick money, Henry threw on a semi clean shirt and stepped out of his apartment. He caught a bus to a bank located a fair distance into the mesa. With a quiet exhale, Henry Stickmin stepped up to the dull grey wall of the bank, eyeing it up and down. It turns out he'd be living a life of crime after all. Besides, this also might be a good time to try out whatever abilities he had now thanks to the incident.

Now all he had to do was figure out how to get inside.

**Author's Note:**

> I'll definitely be writing more for this fandom; I still have lots of ideas and plans for fics/oneshots. Hopefully I'll be able to write and post them before the fandom dies, lol.


End file.
